Kansas City, Mo.—The Community Development Trust (CDT), a national investor in affordable housing, and Cleveland-based The Millennia Cos., a developer and management company, are planning a new $1.8 million equity investment in Kensington Heights Apartments, a nine-story, 126-unit affordable housing apartment building in Kansas City, Mo., that serves low-income senior citizens and people with disabilities. The transaction is CDT’s first equity investment in the state and its first acquisition with Millennia.

The two entities plan to complete $580,000 of capital improvements to ensure Kensington Heights Apartments is maintained as high-quality affordable housing for elderly and disabled residents. These upgrades include renovating all of the community areas in the 1983-built asset, as well as installing new high-efficiency boilers.

Located at 1600 Jackson Ave., near the junction between I-70 and I-670 and 10 minutes from downtown Kansas City, Kensington Heights Apartments serves residents who earn 60 percent of the area median income. The property is exclusively available to those 62 or more and/or disabled. According to Yardi Matrix data, 123 of the units are one-bedroom and three are two-bedroom. Amenities include an elevator, laundry facilities and 50 parking spaces.

In 2014, the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University calculated that 44 percent of renters in the Kansas City metro area, or approximately 126,000 renter households, were cost burdened. In 2017, local government and civic leaders in Kansas City plan to address significant disparities in housing needs and access to opportunity.

Millennia owns and manages three other affordable housing properties in the Kansas City area.